This year, at least, the best defense for the Eagles was supposed to be a good offense. Put up 30-plus points and just limit big plays and make opponents work harder to score and you'll come out ahead almost every time, they figured.

Pro Bowl selections don't come out until tomorrow (Friday) night, but the folks at Pro Football Focus (profootballfocus.com) have jumped the gun and released their own version of this year's game, and four Eagles are on it.

In a rare departure from our usual Monday Morning Quarterback format, we're going this week with a list of the Top 10 thoughts following the Eagles' record-setting massacre of the Chicago Bears last night.

The reasons are because there's just no second-guessing a 54-11 romp and there's just too much leftover from the track meet that broke out to set the stage for next week's apocalyptic matchup with the Dallas Cowboys in which the NFC East will be decided.

10. What was up with the Bears? Just sayin'. For a team that had a chance to clinch the NFC North, they played as if they had no chance.

9. Turnovers truly are a great indicator. With few exceptions, this year's Denver Broncos being one (so far), turnover ratio has a huge impact on success, and for a team that gives up as many yards as the Eagles does, it's especially so.

Their defense has been on the field for a staggering 1,086 plays this season, but the team has offset that ball-control by their opponents with 28 takeaways. Compared to just 18 giveaways, it's a very good number, and it's probably the biggest reason why they're on the verge of their first division crown since 2010.

8. Brad Smith has proved to be a valuable mid-season pickup. Last night, the versatile wide receiver made two tackles in kick coverage to tie Bradley Fletcher for the team lead against the Bears. On a night when top special-teams performers Colt Anderson and Kurt Coleman were out with injuries, that was especially appreciated.

7. Good as the Eagles were defensively on this night, they could have been better. It's inexplicable why their cornerbacks continue to back off outside receivers inside the 10-yard line.

Cary Williams, beaten by Brandon Marshall, who pushed off to catch a 6-yard pass for the Bears' lone touchdown and didn't get flagged, was standing on the 1-yard line when the ball was snapped. He might have made it harder for Marshall to get open, illegally or otherwise, had he been inside Marshall's facemask at the start.

Conversely, they don't always play soft enough when there's a long field, allowing faster athletes to run by them at times in single coverage.

If they can be more consistent with the best possible pre-snap positioning, they could actually advance in the playoffs this year. If they don't, they probably won't even get there.

6. Trent Cole might never be as good an outside linebacker as he is a defensive end, but he's finding ways to get to the quarterback now and make just as much of an impact. He came through with 3.0 sacks on this night, tying his career high, to up his career total to 79.0, good for second place in team history. Only the late, great Reggie White (124) has more.

5. Nick Foles just might be the quarterback for the next thousand years, as coach Chip Kelly jokingly guaranteed last month. After all, there's no question he's going to live forever in the wake of all he's been able to accomplish in just 15 career starts.

Seriously, we're looking at a quarterback with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 25-2 and a season quarterback rating of 118.8, tops in the NFL.

Even if he goes bad next week and chokes away his highly anticipated rematch with the Cowboys, landing the Eagles out of the playoffs for a third straight season, it would be hard to sell drafting a hot shot in the first round next spring.

4. Jason Kelce has emerged as the team's top offensive lineman. When was the last time you could say that about an Eagles center? The Chuck Bednarik era? Maybe never.

3. Coach Chip Kelly has the pulse of his new city. No doubt he's been coached by the Eagles' savvy media relations staff, but he would be totally aware by now anyway. The sound bite he provided about his reasoning for going all-out to win a game that didn't have any bearing on the NFC East race will live in infamy:

"Very simply, we're from Philadelphia and we fight," Kelly said. "That's it. If there's a game on, we're playing, end of the story."

Actually, it might be just the beginning.

2. Kelly has made a remarkable transition to the pro game. Not since 1994, when Barry Switzer took over the Dallas Cowboys, who had a Super Bowl-winning roster already in place, has a head coach with no NFL experience as a player or assistant whatsoever come in and succeeded right away.

Hell, it just doesn't happen very often, period. Even Jimmy Johnson, who built that great Cowboys squad, only won one game in his first year -- after experiencing even much greater success at the college level than Kelly ever did.

1. If there ever was a team set up to beat this year's Dallas Cowboys, it's the Eagles and this dynamic offense they run. It's still hard to believe they struggled so much against them the first time around and lost a low-scoring contest, 17-3.

Foles left with a concussion supposedly suffered at the end of the third quarter, but the feeling here is that it happened a lot earlier, on his team's first offensive series, when he was sacked while committing an intentional grounding penalty on third down, forcing a punt.

Foles bounced up almost too quickly after the back of his head bounced off the turf, as if to say, "look, I'm not hurt. See?"

We did see him play in a daze from that point -- until he was officially knocked senseless.

After last night's game, LeSean McCoy said we didn't see the real Nick Foles in that game, but that we will next Sunday.

If that's the case, it won't even matter if the real Tony Romo, whoever that may be, makes an appearance too, because the Eagles will win.

Secondary takes huge step back

While the mistakes of safety Patrick Chung, who refused interview requests today, were the primary focus in last Sunday's 48-30 loss at Minnesota, the Eagles' secondary as a whole took a giant step back.

According to the detailed Pro Football Focus gradebook, released today, cornerback Bradley Fletcher had his worst game as an Eagle, allowing eight of 10 passes thrown his way to be completed for 134 yards. That doesn't even count the pass interference he was called for in the end zone that set up a touchdown on the next play. But to be fair, that looked like a bogus call.

Video review: Perfect storm for offensive line

Center Jason Kelce said the fourth quarter of last Sunday's 34-20 romp over the Detroit Lions, who seemingly had complete control of the game minutes earlier, "was as good as it gets."

Everything was blocked perfectly on two long touchdown bursts by LeSean McCoy, he said, but they also needed some help from the Lions for McCoy to go all the way on a pair of plays that were not designed for touchdowns.

Age-old debate revisited with Foles on S.I. cover

Chip Kelly closed his press conference on Wednesday by saying he doesn't believe in the Sports Illustrated jinx, which really was the only thing he could have said after being asked, when you think about it.

But here's the deal: the Eagles rookie coach's quarterback, Nick Foles, has made this week's cover, which supposedly opens him up to the immediate and nasty fates of so many others over the decades.

Five wins in a row officially makes the Eagles the hottest team in the NFL. That honor previously belonged to Carolina, which had won eight straight before getting destroyed by New Orleans last night.

This brings us to Question 1 of this week's installment of Monday Morning Quarterback: What if coach Chip Kelly had allowed cornerback Cary Williams' sage advice to pass through one ear and out the other, as so many others do at this level during yesterday's 34-20 win over Detroit?

Video review: Trent Cole still has it

Too often, Eagles defensive coordinator Billy Davis reminded us on Tuesday, perceptions of players are mutated by statistics that do little or nothing to underscore their value.

Outside linebacker Trent Cole, for example, has been a forced on the defense all season, not just since he recorded his first sack on Nov. 3. He's added four more since to suddenly bolt into the team lead for the season.